Job 15  Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered [Job],

² Should a wise man utter such windy knowledge [as we have just heard] and fill himself with the east wind [of withering, parching, and violent accusations]?

³ Should he reason with unprofitable talk? Or with speeches with which he can do no good?

⁴ Indeed, you are doing away with [reverential] fear, and you are hindering and diminishing meditation and devotion before God.

⁵ For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; yes, your own lips testify against you.

⁷ Are you the first man that was born [the original wise man]? Or were you created before the hills?

⁸ Were you present to hear the secret counsel of God? And do you limit [the possession of] wisdom to yourself?

⁹ What do you know that we know not? What do you understand that is not equally clear to us?

¹⁰ Among us are both the gray-haired and the aged, older than your father by far.

¹¹ Are God’s consolations [as we have interpreted them to you] too trivial for you? Is there any secret thing (any bosom sin) which you have not given up? [Or] were we too gentle [in our first speech] toward you to be effective?

¹² Why does your heart carry you away [why allow yourself to be controlled by feeling]? And why do your eyes flash [in anger or contempt],

¹³ That you turn your spirit against God and let [such] words [as you have spoken] go out of your mouth?

¹⁴ What is man, that he could be pure and clean? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be right and just?

¹⁵ Behold, [God] puts no trust in His holy ones [the angels]; indeed, the heavens are not clean in His sight—

¹⁶ How much less that which is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water?

¹⁷ I will show you, hear me; and that which I have seen I will relate,

¹⁸ What wise men have not hid but have freely communicated; it was told to them by their fathers,

¹⁹ Unto whom alone the land was given, and no stranger intruded or passed among them [corrupting the truth].

²⁰ The wicked man suffers with [self-inflicted] torment all his days, through all the years that are numbered and laid up for him, the oppressor.

²¹ A [dreadful] sound of terrors is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him [the dwellings of robbers are not at peace].

²² He believes that he will not return out of darkness, and [because of his guilt] he is waited for by the sword [of God’s vengeance].

²³ He wanders abroad for food, saying, Where is it? He knows that the day of darkness and destruction is already close upon him.

²⁴ Distress and anguish terrify him; [he knows] they shall prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.

²⁵ Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bids defiance and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,

²⁶ Running stubbornly against Him with a thickly ornamented shield;

²⁷ Because he has covered his face with his fat, adding layers of fat on his loins [giving himself up to animal pleasures],

²⁸ And has lived in desolate [God-forsaken] cities and in houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps [of ruins];

²⁹ He shall not be rich, neither shall his wealth last, neither shall his produce bend to the earth nor his possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰ He shall not depart out of darkness [and escape from calamity; the wrath of God] shall consume him as flame consumes a dry tree, and by the blast of His mouth he shall be swept away.

³¹ Let him not deceive himself and trust in vanity (emptiness, falseness, and futility), for these shall be his recompense [for such living].

³² It shall be accomplished and paid in full while he still lives, and his branch shall not be green [but shall wither away].

³³ He shall fail to bring his grapes to maturity [leaving them to wither unnourished] on the vine and shall cast off blossoms [and fail to bring forth fruit] like the olive tree.

³⁴ For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery (wrong and injustice).

³⁵ They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, and their inmost soul hatches deceit.